Many applications could benefit from an accurate identification or verification of a person at a distance from a sensor. Hand geometry, based on measurements of features of the hand, is a useful biometric, but acquisition from a distance is problematic. One problem relates to accounting for the variations in the position and angle of the hand when held in free space rather than when it is placed on a flat sensor (as is normally done in hand geometric operations). Hand and finger orientation can also throw off reliable measurements.